Many of us in the Dharmawheel community have been following the persecution of the Rohingya minority in Myanmar with horror. Our collective hearts go out to the victims and we condemn the perpetrators of the unspeakable violence. We call for an immediate end to the persecution of the Rohingya people.

In speaking to this human rights violation in particular, we, as an online Buddhist community, are sensitive to reports that elements in the Buddhist Sangha (Community of Monks and Nuns) have been vocal advocates in stoking religious, racial, and ethnic nationalism among the Burmese people and encouraging malevolent attitudes toward the Rohingya minority. We are disappointed that individuals wearing the robes of Buddhist renunciates would give voice to messages that are completely at odds with the Buddha's message of peace and liberation and bring disrepute to the Three Jewels of the Buddha, the Dharma (the Teaching), and the Sangha.

We join the mainstream of the Burmese Buddhist community, as well as the overwhelming majority of Buddhists around the world, in condemning those members of the Sangha who have agitated against the Rohingya and would use the color of the Buddha's authority to spread views that are utterly incompatible with the Buddha's teachings.

We encourage all members of the DW community to take whatever action they can to bring an end to the ethnic persecution in Myanmar.

Those who, even with distracted minds,
Entered a stupa compound
And chanted but once, “Namo Buddhaya!”
Have certainly attained the path of the buddhas.
-Lotus Sutra, Expedient Means Chapter

"Butchers, prostitutes, those guilty of the five most heinous crimes, outcasts, the underprivileged: all are utterly the substance of existence and nothing other than total bliss."The Supreme Source - The Kunjed Gyalpo
The Fundamental Tantra of Dzogchen Semde

Why this pro-Rohingya Buddhist is speaking out against his country’s government
By: Nathan Paul Southern - POSTED ON: November 9, 2017

Thet Swe Win runs the Centre for Youth and Social Harmony in his native Myanmar. He recently made a name for himself as one of the few Buddhist voices willing to speak out against his country’s treatment of the Rohingya.

...What do you think of Aung San Suu Kyi’s response?

She has chosen to stand with her own voters. She is contradicting herself. Before she got in power she was seen as a human rights champion. She gave very powerful and colourful speeches. They all contradict with what she is doing right now… It breaks my heart a lot. Her struggle and sacrifices are what inspired me to work for human rights and democracy in Myanmar. We, her followers, feel so lost now. We don’t know what to believe or who to believe – this is what the human rights defenders of Myanmar are feeling like.

How do the international and local media responses differ?

The government doesn’t let in any international or local media to travel freely and go in to get the report. The Burmese media only gets its information from the army; the army is going to be biased. They should let media come in at their own risk like they do in other countries, because… quite a lot of people now are becoming nationalist, so people are biased. It’s very difficult to get the true information on the ground as the government army is controlling everything.

I am feeling very thankful to be part of the Buddhist community who condemns this horrific crime.

I am living in country where majority of people are Muslims, therefore, the genocide of Rohingya got some pretty serious media exposure. Most people were actually completely surprised by the fact that there are nationalistic Buddhists (Buddhist nationalists?) who would approve of these kinds of atrocities.

Me myself, I don't consider myself to be part of the Buddhist doctrinal schools nor Buddhist at all, since I didn't take a refuge, but I am really interested in learning about all things Buddhism. Some people even directly asked me in a provoking way about this (could be just an inappropriate joke, but it was out there) and why doesn't 'so called zen community and its leaders condemn these crimes'.

I am glad this is wrong and that more and more teachers, practitioners and learners are willing to discuss this and enter the field of socio-political discussions, although it's something we should, in a way, stay out of it.

I know, that giving a little bit of money might be only a "drop" of help and support,
but I am convinced that any little contribution will be highly appreciated
and will be soaked-up like from a dried sponge.

...I know sometimes at christmas time all the calls for donations are a bit pestering, and of course
it should not be limited to the holidays.
I myself do not possess that much "financial background", but I am convinced that my little coin together with
what other people can give, makes a valuable amount in the end.

And, first of all, it's about the motivation to help and about the signal of solidarity
that' so much needed when people are suffering.

It is clear that the actors are not always the same, but the stage undergoes few changes: it is enough to see what happens in the past to understand the present and to anticipate the future.

The year is 1942: the Japanese empire is at its top, from Manchuria to the Solomon Islands, passing through the strategic Singapore that protects the Strait of Malacca and separates the Pacific Ocean from the Indian Ocean. China is on the side of the Allies, and therefore receives weapons through a specific route: Burma Road, the "Road to Burma", which allows Anglo-American goods to travel from the Indian Ocean to mainland China through Burma, still under British control. The desire to cut this strategic route, combined with the thirst for raw materials, pushes Tokyo to invade Burma.

In March 1942 the capital Rangoon falls, forcing the British to retreat to neighboring India. The Japanese can rely on their advancement in some strata of the Burmese population: Young Buddhist nationalists welcome the Asian occupant who promises to free the English yoke very well. On the contrary, the Muslim minority remains faithful to the English crown and receives weapons and equipment from London to prevent the march of the Japanese and their local allies. The region of Arkan, now Rakhine, is the scene of bloody ethnic clashes between pro-Japanese Buddhists and Muslim Anglophiles. These, concentrated on the north coast near Bangladesh, are called Rohingya.

After more than 70 years, the ingredients are still the same: a strategic route linking China with the Indian Ocean, the presence of hydrocarbons, a Buddhist majority in nationalist-militarist positions, a Muslim minority with Anglo-Catholic positions. Everything as before, but now Beijing is not on the Anglo-American side.

Subject to a coup of socialist inspiration in 1962, this large country like Afghanistan and with 55 million inhabitants (dated 2014) remains on the margins of the Cold War. After the Tiananmen Square revolt and the fall of the Berlin Wall, Burma is also being led by Anglo-Americans towards "democracy."

In May 1990 the first free elections were held and the winner was Aung San Suu Kyi, daughter of the father of the motherland (who contracted with the British for independence in 1947), educated in England, a past in the United Nations, married to a British citizen, Aung San has all the credentials to transport Burma to an economy based on the free market. But the military junta in power, aware of the centrifugal temptations that cross the country, has no intention of abdicating: it rejects the result of the elections, dissolves Parliament and arrests the opposition leaders.

In Washington and London it is scandal: to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Aung San Suu Kyi (1991) is a countermeasure with little effectiveness. Also because Burma (which in the meantime adopts the less sympathetic denomination of Pyidaunzu Thanmăda Myăma Nainngandaw or Myanmar) is again forgotten. Bill Clinton has to expand NATO to the East and redraw the Balkans, George W. Bush dreams of redesigning the Middle East and planting the flag in Afghanistan: there is not much time left for Burma.

But in the meantime China is growing, even posing a threat. Barack Obama decides to focus on the Pacific Ocean and Beijing: therefore, Burma is once again a priority. New legislative elections are taking place in 2015 and Aung San Suu Kyi wins again. However, because of the British passport of her deceased husband and her children, she is prevented from officially assuming the Presidency, being assigned a function equivalent to "Counselor of Myanmar". Barack Obama is pleased, in November 2016 receives Aung San Suu Kyi in the White House and says that the time has come to revoke economic sanctions against Burma.

It is unfortunate that Burma's "democratization" project also contemplates the crushing of the country through the secession of important areas where ethnic and linguistic minorities reside. The installation at the top of Burma of Aung San Suu Kyi should, in fact, facilitate the secession of the Muslim Arkan: no coincidence, in 2016, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (Aring Rohingya de Arkan Salvation Army) with strong ties with Saudi Arabia. This triggers violence in the region and the immediate reaction of the central state. Tensions explode and, as in times of Japanese occupation, the country becomes polarized: the military junta, an expression of the Buddhist nationalist majority, seeks the support of emerging Asian power (China), the Muslim minority, the Rohingyas, is supported by Anglo-Americans.

Beijing's interest in Burma is dictated by the same reasons that led Tokyo to expand its sphere of influence to present-day Myanmar. Raw materials (Burma is a major producer of natural gas and oil) and communication routes. Just as the British built Burma Road to reach China from the Indian Ocean without crossing the Strait of Malacca, today the Chinese plan to reach the Indian Ocean through Burma, thus avoiding Singapore and a possible Anglo-American blockade of the Strait. The modern "Road of Burma" runs naturally on the trails of high-speed trains and is an integral part of the "New Silk Road", the rail / sea / airport infrastructure plan with which China wants to achieve the full .

The Muslim minority Rohingya is useful to Anglo-Americans as it was in 1942. This ethnic group of Islamic faith, always hostile to Buddhist nationalists, is concentrated in the region of Arkan (now Rakhine), where Chinese railways and pipelines pass to get to the Indian Ocean. The separation of the Muslim region, in addition to burying the current Burmese state, would nullify Beijing's strategy to circumvent the Strait of Malacca.

The Anglo-Americans hoped that Aung San Suu Kyi would take a public stance in favor of the Muslim insurrection, the first step towards independence: nevertheless the Counselor of Myanmar, aware that such a change would mean their deposition by the military junta that still controls de facto the Country, so far has remained silent, attracting heavy criticism.

The Rohingya's defense so far has been made by Amnesty International London and American Human Rights Watch: it is obviously spoken of as "military massacres", of "ethnic cleansing", but it is difficult to know the reality because we know how these NGOs operate .

Faced with an increase in internal violence and media assaults, the military junta reacted by strengthening dialogue with China: the commander-in-chief of the Burmese military, General Min Aung Hlaing, recently held a six-day meeting in Beijing with President Xi Jinping and his Chinese counterpart. More interestingly, a similar visit should soon be made by Aung San Suu Kyi, witnessing how the Nobel Peace Prize winner, who faces the risk of Balkanization in his country, is moving away from the old Western allies.

On Burma's horizon, therefore, the strong plates of Anglo-Americans are likely to appear: economic sanctions and attacks by radical Islamists.

I have no informed opinion on the historical and present political forces at work in Burma/Myanmar.

It is however categorically untenable that any teaching of the Buddha could be held up to justify the treatment of the Rohingya and people dressed in monk drag while advocating violence are no real monks and should be expelled from the Sangha.

Those who, even with distracted minds,
Entered a stupa compound
And chanted but once, “Namo Buddhaya!”
Have certainly attained the path of the buddhas.
-Lotus Sutra, Expedient Means Chapter

I have no informed opinion on the historical and present political forces at work in Burma/Myanmar.

It is however categorically untenable that any teaching of the Buddha could be held up to justify the treatment of the Rohingya and people dressed in monk drag while advocating violence are no real monks and should be expelled from the Sangha.

It has nothing to do with Buddha, Buddhism or Buddhists.

it is only the old history of political and economic interests.

After more than 70 years, the ingredients are still the same: a strategic route linking China with the Indian Ocean, the presence of hydrocarbons, a Buddhist majority in nationalist-militarist positions, a Muslim minority with Anglo-Catholic positions. Everything as before, but now Beijing is not on the Anglo-American side.